Cal Football: Matt Cindric Vows Offense Will Score 4 Touchdowns Each Game

This is center Matt Cindric’s fifth season on the Cal football team.

He is not happy with how the offense has performed through his first four seasons. And he promises things will be different this fall.

“We’re ready to take the lead,” he said of the offense. “We talk about goals for the year — we want to score four or more touchdowns every game.”

The Bears accomplished that just four times in 12 games a year ago. In Cindric’s four seasons in Berkeley, the Bears have put up four TDs in a game only 10 times in 42 outings.

There is a lot of optimism within the program about the direction of the offense, despite the fact that only four full-time starters return.

“There’ll be a lot of new faces but we are very optimistic and excited about the guys that are out there and they’re going to have their chance now," Cal coach Justin Wilcox said. “The first test is on Saturday.”

Cal fans have been eager to see offensive production that approaches the level the Bears have performed on defense since Wilcox arrived for the 2017 season.

But it often hasn’t been pretty on offense, not in the past four seasons, anyway.

Here are the Bears’ scoring numbers during that span:

2018: 21.5 points per game (12th in Pac-12)

2019: 21.2 (12th in Pac-12)

2020: 20.2 (11th in Pac-12)

2021: 23.8 (8th in Pac-12)

Cal is the only Pac-12 program that has failed to average at least 25 points even once over that four-year stretch. Among schools from Power 5 conferences (plus Notre Dame), only Kansas and Rutgers join the Bears in that category.

Cal’s defense, meanwhile, has been among the Pac-12’s top-5 each of those seasons. Just imagine what the Bears might have done could they a score a bit more.

Actually, you don’t have to imagine it. We did the math.

In 11 of Cal’s 21 losses since the start of 2018, the Bears surrendered 24 points or fewer. That means if the offense had put up just 25 points in those games, the program’s loss total would have been cut in half.

For change to happen, the Bears need their young or new skill-position players to deliver. That includes a bigger, faster wide receiver crew led by Jeremiah Hunter and J.Michael Sturdivant. And a tantalizing young talent in freshman running back Jaydn Ott.

Cindric talks in the video above about his confidence level heading into the season, which begins Saturday against UC Davis.

What the offense might do this season starts with quarterback Jack Plummer, a senior transfer from Purdue, who won the job during spring practice and solidified his hold on the No. 1 spot during fall camp.

Plummer echoes Wilcox’s mantra that the season’s direction will be determined by how everyone on the team performs, not merely one unit. But he likes where he thinks the offense can go.

“I don’t see any reason we can’t go out there and score points,” he said. “We’ve got solid offensive linemen, great receivers, good stable of running backs, tight ends are doing their part. There’s no reason we can’t go out, no matter who we’re playing, and score points.”

The Bears got solid play out of Chase Garbers, who this week was signed to the Raiders’ practice squad. But Plummer has convinced everyone that he’ll handle the job just fine.

“I’d say he’s a vocal leader, which is a little bit different than Chase,” Cindric said of Plummer. But he also leads by example. He puts in a lot of work, he commands the offense really well, gets guys where they need to go.

“And he has a rocket arm. Everyone’s super excited to have him around and I think he’s going to do some big things for us this year.”

Cover photo of Cal center Matthew Cindric by Darren Yamashita, USA Today

Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo